Future of Pete the Moose unclear

Mar. 10, 2011

Pete the Moose eats his daily ration of corn Monday, June 14, 2010, at Big Rack Ridge in Irasburg. The so-called "Pete the Moose" bill would reverse a measure drafted behind closed doors and enacted at the last minute by the 2010 Legislature. That bill gave ownership of the wild animals to the park owner, Doug Nelson of Derby, who planned to charge people to shoot trophy whitetails. / CANDACE PAGE, Free Press

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Two opinions emerged Thursday, in the wake of a 7-2 vote by the House Fish and Wildlife Committee to require an Irasburg game-hunting park to eliminate within five years all the wild white-tailed deer and moose mixed in with its imported elk.

The animals likely would be killed, probably during the regular hunting season or during special seasons.

The bill could be acted on by the full House as early as next week.

One of the wild moose is Pete, an orphaned animal that was given refuge at Big Rack Ridge by the park’s owner, Doug Nelson. Pete attracted a legion of defenders last year, when his life appeared to be threatened by Fish and Wildlife Department regulations requiring all the wild animals inside Nelson’s fences to be killed to prevent the spread of animal diseases.

Pete soon had his own rally and his own Facebook page. In a last-minute action, the Legislature approved a measure drafted in secret to strip the Fish and Wildlife Department of its authority over Big Rack Ridge.

The bill voted out of committee Thursday would reverse last year’s action.

Afterwards, Rep. Bob Lewis, R-Derby, a committee member who voted against the measure, said, “There is nothing in this bill to save Pete the Moose.”

But Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Pat Berry disagreed. While the bill means most of the whitetails and moose will be killed by hunting, “we’re assuming that does not apply to Pete,” he said.

He said that particular moose could be confined within a separate pen at Big Rack Ridge, as it has in the past, to keep it safe from hunting until another home is found for it.

Eric Nuse, a former game warden and a member of a group of sportsmen who advocated for the bill said the situation might take care of itself.

“The feeling is that by the time we get to five years, he will have died of natural causes or other causes,” Nuse said.

While Pete has attracted much of the attention, advocates said it was not Pete but principle that made the committee’s action important.

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Last year’s measure essentially gave Nelson ownership of wild deer and moose, and he planned to sell the right to hunt the trophy animals.

Uproar ensued. Vermont sportsmen argued that the 2010 law violated the longstanding legal tradition that wild animals are held in trust by the government for all the people of the state. They urged lawmakers to re-establish that principle. They also want the whitetails and moose killed for fear they could spread disease if they escape.

“The most important element in the bill is that it affirms that wildlife is owned by all Vermonters, not just one person,” Berry said.

Lewis, one of those who voted no on the bill, agreed.

“They belong to the people of Vermont,” he said. Nelson is one of Lewis’ constituents. Lewis said what he hears from people in his area is, “they don’t want to see healthy animals killed just because.”

Berry said he looks forward to working out a plan with Nelson for a steady reduction in the number of wild deer and moose trapped inside the park’s fences.

Some of those animals were trapped inside the seven miles of fencing Nelson put up in 2000 to create Big Rack Ridge, where hunters pay thousands of dollars to shoot trophy elk imported from the West.

Those first wild deer and moose have reproduced; others may have jumped in over the fence in search of the food Nelson provides every day for his herd. He told the committee in January there are at least 138 white-tailed deer and perhaps nine moose in the enclosure now.

Since Nelson cannot own the animals, and since they cannot simply be returned to the wild for fear of spreading disease, it appears they will be killed during special hunting seasons over the next five years.

“Turning them loose would mean they would likely die of starvation or be hit by cars,” said Rep. Kate Webb, D-Shelburne, a committee member.

The bill uses the word “take” rather than “kill,” but it also authorizes hunting and sets out a procedure for the state to approve the number of animals taken each year. Nelson will not be allowed to charge for the right to hunt the animals, although he can still sell hunts of the imported elk.

Any whitetails and moose left in year 5 would all be “taken.”

Nelson himself told the committee earlier this year that he should be allowed to keep the wild deer and moose because he has been feeding them for a decade, and because they represent the foundation of a good tourist and trophy-hunting business in the Northeast Kingdom.

He declined to comment on the committee’s action Thursday, saying he had not heard about the vote or the five-year deadline. He said he needed to digest the bill first.